Mass Effect: Dreams of Stone and Dust - Codex
by Jadeflame
Summary: The codex for a fanfiction that i am still writing. I just wanted to already post it to save some steps later. All copyrights go to who ever has the claim to them. Inspired by a few other Fanfictions and Games.
1. UPSC and UNSC

**Mass Effect: Of Stone and Dust**

**Codex**

**U.P.S.C.:**

Established in the year 2356, the United Planetary Systems Alliance is the overarching government of humanity and consists of representatives of every planetary government existing in U.N.S.C. space.

It was created to stop another Earth-Mars war from ever occurring again, and to prevent later colonies from becoming independent nations. Its parliament consists of representatives of all U.P.S.C. worlds, with Earth and Mars possessing veto rights. The number of representatives is dependant on the number of states on the planet.

A state is heavily regulated by size and number of inhabitants, and Covus oversees any unregularity between state number and actual inhabitants.

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**U.N.S.C.:**

The United Nations Space Command is the strong right hand of the U.P.S.C., enforcing laws on all colonies and protecting the citizens of humanity. The U.N.S.C. created the then three, now four, major governmental defence divisions in the year 2145.

The first where the Sentinels, tasked with policing the colonial administrations, supplying frontline troops in times of war and the enforcement of law and order on the colonized planets. After many years the Sentinels learned how to cooperate effectively with colonial militia and police forces, establishing themselves in the eye of the public as knights in shining armour.

The Sentinels are the only Department with access to ATLAS-class or Colossus-class Javelins.

Then there is the Legion. They are the explorational and colonial aspect of the U.N.S.C., controlling anything concerning the establishment of new colonies, terraforming new planets, establishing landing zones for invasions and any new Forerunner technology.

After working together with the engineering corps for such a long time, they became masterful engineers themselves and started the construction of their own specialised vessels, the Pheonix-class Colonial Support Vessel and the Prowler fleet.

The Legion also provides the infiltration and recon teams for the standing U.N.S.C. army. They always work closely with the Sentinels to protect the cities on border planets, which are not as secure as the core planets.

Most people fear the Legion for the incredibly fast and stealthy Infiltrator-class Javelins that they possess.

The third Department are the Archivists, they are assigned the scientific aspect of the U.N.S.C. Nearly all new technological developments come out of their closed hall. Recruiting from an early age, most Archivists don't see the outside world for nearly 15 years, after which they have the right to venture out into the galaxy.

Most young Archivists team together with a local Legionnaires team or find a Freelancer team, which they can use to obtain new samples of alien flora and fauna.

The only fighting teams that the Archivists possess are the Storm-class Javelin pilots, which are incredibly powerful. They can bend natural gravity fields and control natural phenomena like electricity, fire and frost to combat their enemies. Nothing is more frightening then a team of Storm-class Titans work together to summon gigantic firestorms or generate blizzards.

The U.N.S.C. established the last Division in the year 2354, called Corvus. Corvus is the internal police force of the U.N.S.C., tasked with supervising the other divisions and the brass to make sure that no humanitarian laws are broken. Many Freelancers from the Archivists and the Legion end up in Corvus, because they are not allowed to directly recruit from the military academies. Other responsibilities are the protection of VIPs, surveillance of state enemies, internet security, finance control and deep space surveillance.

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**U.N.S.C. Command Structure:**

High Admiral - Directors of the four Departments - Admiral - Vice Admiral - General - Colonel - Major - Captain - Lieutenant

At the very top resides the High Admiral. A High Admiral normally served as a Admiral for around 15 years before being admitted into the rank of High Admiral. There is always only one High Admiral in active service, even though retired High Admirals are encouraged to return to active service in times of war.

The Directors of the four Departments (Legionnaires, Sentinels, Archivists and Corvus) are semi-independant from the U.N.S.C. command structure, but have to answere to the currently acting High Admiral. A Director is always promoted from the higher ranks of the affected department, without influence of outside sources.

There are currently 15 Admirals, each of them is overseeing one of the most important fleets of the U.N.S.C., for example: Homefleet-01 above Earth is overseen by Admiral Kastani Drescher, Defensefleet-56 above Reach by Malcolm Fitzgerald, Attackfleet-15 at Arcturus by Ismail Üzbey and Explorationfleet-02 above Anthem at Jumppoint Zero by Andrea Goldbaum.

* * *

**U.N.S.C. Buildphilosophy:**

The U.N.S.C. began to construct settlements on rimworlds as bunkercities after the destruction of most of the U.P.S.C. colony worlds by Covenant forces [Glassing through Plasmabombardment by Covenant capital ships].

Nowadays most cities consist of a top-side recreation and agricultural district and a down-side industrialised, residential district. All existential services, like water treatment, main generators and food storages, are required to be build underground, in case of an invasion or the destruction of the uppermost planetary crust.

All cities can survive for at least half a year before rationing sets in and can then still hold out for at least another year.

* * *

**U.P.S.C. Races**:

Humans:

The Humans, where the first member race of the U.P.S.C. and still hold most of the high-ranking positions. Most planets are mainly colonized by humans and humanity now numbers around 50 billion.

Tevarin:

The Tevarin, an avian race from an oceanic homeworld called Kaleeth, where once bitter enemies of the U.P.S.C., but lost their "holy war" against the Humans. After nearly losing their planet because of their own high admiral, the remaining Tevarin surrendered and asked the U.P.S.C. to support their dying race, in exchange for their technology. Now they are the biggest supporters of the democratic system, even though they still live in mainly militaristic colonies.

Huragok:

The Huragok, where once a slave race of the Holy Covenant. These bio-mechanical constructs are dependent on their surrounding environment for protection and willingly joined the U.P.S.C. after their main colonies were freed.

Drell:

The reptilian Drell are from the now dead Homeworld of Rakhana. They possess a naturally eidetic memory, which forces them to always remember anything that they lived through. After nearly nuking themselves back into the stone age, the Drell, where saved by a major humanitarian intervention by the Legionnaires.

Over 10 billion Drell, where saved from their failing Homeworld and resettled on various human and Tevarin desert colonies. It is known, that the Drell where already visited once by an extra-terrestrial species, but they only saved a small amount of their race for their skin colour.

Only green Drell, where saved for a specific reason by the illustrious Hanar and the rest of their race was left behind. The biggest concentration of Drell live on the Shieldworld Delta and support the Legionnaires.

Unggoy:

The Unggoy are a short, methane breathing, crustatean race from the world of Balaho. They are mainly farmers and builders because of their naturally fearful disposition.

Many Clans are part of the newly formed Sangheili Protectorate, but a not small number of clans merged with the U.P.S.C.

They once worked as a slave race and meat shield for the San'Shyuum in the Covenant.


	2. Weapons and Vehicles

**Mass Effect: Of Stone and Dust**

**Codex**

**MassAccelerationCannon (MAC):**

Small \- mounted on space superiority fighters and artillery-javelins

Armour piercing \- Planet-to-Orbit based artillery and smaller satellites

Medium \- Spinal mounted on Corvettes and Frigates, planet-to-orbit heavy artillery installations

Heavy \- Spinal mounted on heavy frigates and cruisers, heavily reinforced planet-to-orbit artillery

Super – Only mounted on stations in orbit around places of significant strategic value or core worlds (Earth, Mars, Reach, Harvest, Anthem, Kaleeth, Sirius-Main-Hub, Arcturus Station, Shieldworld Delta and Installation 000)

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**Missiles:**

Archer – The standard ship-to-ship missiles used by the UNSC. One missile pod contains 30 missiles, they are now equipped with minuscule slipspace engines which enable them to jump 10m, bypassing any shielding a ship could possess.

Howler – A ship-to-ship missile used by the UNSC, one pod contains 30 missiles, which in turn contain 50 smaller payloads in each missile, while also emitting jamming fields. Their purpose is to overwhelm point defence cannons and protect following archer missiles.

Hot-rods – Although they are not really missiles but are rather giant tungsten rods deployed from orbit to bombard planets without the use of atomic weaponry.

Support ships like the phoenix-class support vessel carry at least one such deployment structure with them at war times

Thermobaric Bomb \- The Thermobaric Bomb aka. The Thermobomb replaced any smaller sized nuclear bombs or missiles for planetary operations, she causes more destruction with a bigger blast radius without the deficit of nuclear radiation. Extremely efficient against bunkers and tunnels.

Plasma bomb \- Reverse engineered from smaller handheld plasma grenades used by the Covenant in the Human-Covenant war, the Plasma Bombs are in fact giant version, dropped from orbit to bombard enemy encampments.

Plasma mine \- Used by Prowlers to interrupt and damage advancing enemies, one Minepod contains up to 50 Mines

Shiva – A Nuclear missile with absolute destructive capabilities. The Shiva can only be used on authority of U.N.S.C. High Command from Arcturus.

Planet buster – There are only 5 Planet buster bombs in existence, the fire authorization can only be obtained by receiving the go ahead from the UNSC High Admiral and the UPSC Premier Minister, all Planet buster missiles are secured in secret location on earth.

They were only once used against the parasitic lifeform on Alpha Signy, when nothing else was a viable option.

ANVIL – The ANVIL missiles are flight-to-ground and ground-to-ground missiles used by Pelicans and ground troops alike.

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**Vehicles:**

Warthog:

Crew: 1 Driver, 1 Passenger, 1 Gunner

Armament: 1 12.5x99mm Gatling Gun

Dimensions: 6m long, 3m wide, 3m high

Class: rapid response vehicle

Role: Transport, fast moving ground support

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M510 Mammoth:

Crew: 3 (1 Driver, 2 Gunner) + 35 Passengers

Armament: 1 small MAC, 2 MLRS(MultiLocketRocketSystem)+20 ANVIL missiles

Dimensions: 70m long, 33m wide, 28m high

Class: Mobile Ground Command Centre

Role: Troop deployment, Transport, Mobile Command Centre

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Scorpion MBT:

Crew: 1 Driver, 1 Gunner, 1 Cypher, 1 Engineer

Armament: 1 Armor-piercing turreted MAC, 1 Anti-personnel machinegun

Dimensions: 10m long, 8m wide, 4m high

Class: Main Battle Tank

Role: Frontline support through superior firepower

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D89H-TCI Pelican:

Crew: 3 (1 Pilot, 1 Co-Pilot, 1 Chief) + 15 Passengers

Armament: 2 70mm rotary cannon, 1 small MAC, 12 ANVIL missiles

Dimensions:30m long, 23m wide, 10m high

Class: Dropship/Gunship

Role: planetary insertion and troop transport, air support

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ATLAS-class Javelin:

Crew: 2 (1 Pilot, 1 Navigator)

Armament: 1 small MAC, 1 forward facing gimbled 120mm Machinegun, 1 deployable bubble shield

Dimensions: 3m deep, 5m wide, 15m high

Class: Mobile Artillery

Role: Mobile Artillery and Anti-Air

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**Chimera-Metal:**

The mineral CH-182, also called Chimera, was first found in deposits on Anthem.

Consisting of an unusual alloy, made up of Titanium, Platinum, Iron, Silver and the influence of Forerunner terraforming technology.

This mineral is nearly indestructible, while being able to change its form, if exposed to electromagnetic impulses in a specific frequency.

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**Ember:**

Ember is a substance generally found on many old forerunner worlds. It is created by excessive use of the 'Anthem of Creation', a by the Forerunners discovered meta-dimensional energy source, that can control the development and mutation of cells and atoms at an incredible level.

Ember is in principle an element that normally can't be on this level of existence. It can't normally exist in this dimension but is rather forced by the amount of 'Anthem' that is used.

The most intriguing property of Ember is that it has a weight of nearly 0, while possessing a hardness higher then diamonds, while being nearly unbreakable (diamonds for example are extremely hard but are brittle enough to break them). They are also filled with 'Anthem'-energy, enabling them to control the form of nearby objects.

A number of Archivists theorise, that Ember deals a huge part in the beginning process of CH-182.

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**Bio-Link:**

The Bio-Link is a technology discovered in the early years of human expansion into our solar system. After the scientists in the Forerunner ruins on Mars decoded their language, they were able to reverse-engineer a lot of technology, the currently used Terraforming stations and atmospheric converters are a good example of these. One of these reverse-engineered technologies, where the Bio-Links.

They serve as a bio-mechanical bridge between human and machine, enabling the human to operate the connected machine through a neural bridge. The Bio-Link of a person is a wallet, personal identification and access port in one, especially because only the bonded human can communicate with the Bio-Link. They are typically attached to one of the hands for ease of access.

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**Military Personnel:**

All army and navy personnel are required to undergo extensive gene-therapies and chemical enhancements. These are specifically required to withstand the rigorous perils of space and difficult combat situations.

At the end of the enhancement everyone can safely endure up to 55g of force and resist atomic radiation for a short amount of time. Their bones are denser, and their natural regenerative abilities are enhanced. All bioengineering and intense chemical procedures must take place on Reach, because of specific laws, that prohibit unsupervised extensive biological tampering of DNA.

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**Titans:**

After the UNSC started to invest into quality instead of quantity, the idea of super soldiers became a strongly contested topic between the top brass of the military.

Several ethical questions, where asked and human rights activists started demonstrating against the idea of increased chemical and mechanical bio-engineering.

These became rarer after the U.P.S.C. made gene-therapy mandatory for all citizens at the age of 3 and allowed smaller bio-engineering procedures for civilian use, which were banned before that.

The first Titans send into combat were the Mk.I, deciding the war between the outer mining colonies and the core systems for the core systems.

They were in many ways superior to the then still standard marines and soldiers, the Mk.I, where Bonafide killing machines. "As strong as 5 men, faster than a jeep, better reflexes than a viper!". Those where the words when they started recruiting for the second official generation of Titans.

What they didn't mention was, that an estimated amount of 89% died in the enhancement for the Mk.I and that there were tests to go even beyond that. Child soldiers. Taken from their families at the age of 6 and trained until the age of 18, they were supposed to protect humanity as their ever-watching guardians. Thankfully this was discovered by Corvus cell members inside the Titan program. Only 50 children were kidnapped, and sadly only 15 survived. They were then taken under custody and received intensive mental counseling and had to take several psychic evaluations, it took years to help them overcome the monstrosities they had to endure in these 12 years. The U.N.S.C. learned from this oversight and put enhanced Corvus supervision on the Titan project, while keeping the responsible doctor, Dr. Catherine Halsey, under strict house arrest on the fortress world Reach for several years.

The current Titans, the , are trained from the age of 16 for 6 years and must undergo rigorous training to become Titans. The training is done by the surviving Titans, who couldn't reintegrate back into society.

All Titans are subjected to extreme screening processes and heavily tested for allergic reactions to chemicals and materials used in the later enhancement stages, to prevent any unnecessary deaths later in the project.

The procedures include the ossification of their bones with Carbide Ceramics, making them virtually unbreakable, necessary for the extreme influence of G-forces while piloting a Javelin. Their muscles get enhanced with various drugs and genetical augmentation, enabling them to lift cars at the age of 18 and trucks at the age of 21, while their retinas are replaced with bio-mechanical displays, which are linked partially to their Bio-Links, enabling them to connect their vision to cameras and interface displays. The last enhancement consists of the replacement of their nervous system with superconductive fibres, which increase their reflexes by 300%.

Any Titan recruit is subjected to intense psychological analysis over the training to find eventual physical and mental preferences for a specific kind of later Javelin. This is incredibly important, because the Javelins are keyed to their respective Titan's Bio-link and won't be able to bond to another person ever again after the initial pairing process.

After the 6 years of rigorous training, each person gets evaluated and joins either the Legion or the Sentinels, depending on their evaluation results. They are then paired into teams of 6 and get to choose, or are recommended for, their Javelin.

In the next 2 years they are only allowed 1 hour per day outside of their suit to finish the bonding process.

After these two years they have a mandatory 5 years in their respective department and can then decide, if they want to become Freelancers or if they want to remain in their department. If they choose to become a Freelancer, they must sign a non-disclosure document and a Consent form, which say that they must support the U.N.S.C. in a war, should such an event occur.

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**Cyphers:**

The Cyphers are an under dicision of the Archivist Department. They are typically Humans or Drell who were, while they were still a foetus, infected with the 'Ember-Disease'.

The first cases of 'Ember-Disease' emerged on Anthem, after a catastrophic freighter collision sent tons of Ember dust into the atmosphere above the city of New Campbell. Even though a plenitude of pregnant women suffered miscarriages, around 50 children were still born around 7-9 months after the incident. These children were born with an naturally occuring organ, which was able to store some kind of 'biologic ember'.

The parents of these children then noticed some difficulties with their children, at first it was thought that the children where autistic, but that changed after the oldest of them, Marcus Davidson, linked to his best friend, Allie Lindholm, for the first time and they began to hold a conversation with each other even though they were 3 rooms apart from each other.

After that instance the Archivist enclave on Anthem declared a state of emergency and erected a quarantine around New Campbell, isolating around 50.000 citizen. After several months of data analysis and a multitude of tests conducted on all citizen of new Campbell, it was declared that around 16.000 women and men were infected by, was is now called the 'Ember-Disease', and had the chance to give birth to naturally occurring ember-sensitive children, aka. Cypher.

It was also discovered that a Cypher perceives reality different than a normally occurring being from their species. While a normal human, for example, can follow one thought at once for example, a Cypher can follow 1.000 thoughts at the same time. They have extremely enhanced mental capabilities, enabling them to process incredible amounts of data and possess enhanced mental capabilities. These attributes, together with the for a Cypher normal detachment from other people, led the families of the children to believe them to be autistic.

The most remarkable discovery was that these abilities would grow stronger over time, meaning that, even though the distance between a Cypher-link is no longer then 500m, the distance between the Cypher and the Linked can reach incredible dimensions, leading to the practice of coupling Titan teams to a Cypher to enhance their coordination and for outside support.

The reason for the initial amount of miscarriages was because the brains of the foeti had to change in major parts, to contain all this new data, leading to the overload of the fragile older foeti, which were not as 'flexible' as those in earlier stadiums, meaning that only the youngest in development survived the sudden change.

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**Javelins:**

Ranger-class: medium shield and armour, demolition specialists and weapons experts, 3m tall, capable of flight

ATLAS-class: high calibre artillery support (armour piercing MAC mounted on their shoulder), heavily armoured and shielded, relatively slow, has an artillery mode, flight capable but shields are most susceptible to damage while in flight, 15m tall

Storm-class: heavily shielded but low armour, specialised in area of effect and area denial, capable of flight and possesses enhanced hover mode, 2.5m tall

Infiltrator-class: sparsely shielded and armoured, extremely mobile, capable of flight and faster than any other javelin, CQC experts and reconnaissance specialists, 2m tall

Colossus-class: heavily armoured, medium shields, frontline bruisers, specialists in disrupting enemy frontlines, flight capable but shields are prone to shut off after extended amount of flight time, 4m tall

Enforcer-class: medium armour and heavy shields, flight engines where replaced with extended shield generators, main frontline, experts in acquiring and holding bought ground, most of the time rely on support from Colossus-class or Ranger-class Javelins to push enemies, will never fall back


	3. Ships and FTL

**Mass Effect: Of Stone and Dust**

**Codex**

**Ships:**

Crew: each ship has at least one cypher on board to streamline any information processing and to control the point defence systems,

bigger ships like Phoenix-class support vessels are carrying at times up to 30 Cypher if they are in the process of setting up colonies.

Specific ship classes are under specific department high command, example: Infinity-class Supercarriers are under Legion command, while Marathon-class heavy Cruiser are under Sentinel command.

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Longsword-class Space superiority fighter:

Crew: 4 (1 Pilot, 1 Navigator, 1 Engineer, 1 Co-Pilot)

Armament: 2 fixed small MACs, 2 gimbaled ventral 120mm guns, 4 archer missiles

Dimensions: 64m long, 12m high, 75m wide

Class: Space superiority fighter

Role: Swarm-tactics and fleet support against Corvettes, Frigates and enemy capital ships

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Lifter-class Interplanetary Transportcraft:

Crew: 4 Navy Personnel (1 Pilot, 1 Co-Pilot, 1 Navigator, 1 Cypher)

Complement: Space for 200 Javelins and their Titans, 1 M510 Mammoth

Armament: 4 small gimbaled MACs, 1 armour piercing Mac, 4 point Defence Cannons

Dimensions: 300m long, 125m wide, 50m high

Class: Planetary Troop transport

Role: Trooptransport, Planetary Insertion, Troop Redeployment

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Gladius-class Corvette:

Crew: 16 (1 Pilot, 2 Co-Pilots, 1 Captain, 1 Weapons Officer, 5 Navigators, 1 Communications Officer, 1 Cypher, 1 Cook, 3 Engineers)

Armament: 1 medium MAC, 2 Pod Systems (normally 2 Archer pods), 6 Point Defence Cannons, 50 Plasmabombs

Dimensions: 243m long, 122m high, 40m wide

Class: Corvette

Role: Reconnaissance, planetary support, and infiltration

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Sahara-class Prowler:

Crew: 8 (1 Captain, 1 Pilot, 1 Co-pilot, 1 Navigator, 2 Engineers, 1 Cypher, 1 Cook) + 12 Legionnaires

Armament: 4 small MACs, 1 Minepod, 1 Shiva Launch system, 12 Drop pods

Dimensions: 281m long, 155m wide, 62m high

Class: Prowler

Role: Intelligence, deep space Reconnaissance, Infiltration and Exfiltration, VIP transport

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Tundra-class Transport:

Crew: 16 Navy Personnel + 10.000 Sentinels

Complement: 2 M510 Mammoths, 40 Warthogs, 524 Drop pods

Armament: 2 small MACs, 4 Point Defence Cannons

Dimensions: 1500m long, 300m wide, 350m high

Class: Transport

Role: Mass troop transport, planetary insertion

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Stalwart-class Light Frigate:

Crew: 250 Naval Personnel + 200 Sentinels + 100 Legionnaires

Complement: 6 Pelicans, 6 ATLAS-type javelins, 24 Drop pods

Armament: 1 medium MAC, 4 smaller gimbaled MACs, 50 Point Defence Cannons, 80 Missile Pods (20 Archer, 40 Howler)

Dimensions: 478m long, 152m wide, 112m high

Class: Frigate

Role: Troop transport, Planetary Defence, Fleet support

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Anlace-class Frigate:

Crew: 180 Navy Personnel + 200 Sentinels

Complement: 2 Pelicans in Hangar, 4 Pelicans on Hull clamps

Armament: 1 Plasmalance, 60 Point Defence Cannons, 8 smaller belly gimbaled MACs

Dimensions: 372m long, 112m wide, 109m high

Class: Frigate

Role: specially designed to support planetary invasions, extremely effective manoeuvering thrusters

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Strident-class Heavy Frigate:

Crew: 190 Navy Personnel + 100 Sentinels + 50 Legionnaires

Complement: 8 ATLAS-class Javelins, 1 internal Pelican, 4 Pelicans on hull clamps

Armament: 1 heavy MAC, 16 small gimbaled MACs, 6 Armor piercing MACs, 2 Missile Pod Systems (50 pods: 20 Archer, 30 Howler), 12 Point Defence Cannons

Dimensions: 575m long, 124m wide, 112m high

Class: Frigate

Role: Fleet Escort, Rapid Assault

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Poseidon-class Light Carrier:

Crew: 200 Navy Personnel + 500 Sentinels

Complement: 300 Drop pods, 30 Pelicans, 50 Longsword Superiority Fighters, 18 ATLAS-class Javelins

Armament: 50 Point Defence Cannons, 24 small gimbaled MACs

Dimensions: 719m long, 300m high, 246m wide

Class: Carrier

Role: Support Fleet Backbone, Main fighter support

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Vulcan-class Fighter Carrier:

Crew: 1500 Navy Perosnnel

Complement: 2000 Longsword Superiority Fighters

Armament: 16 armour piercing gimbaled MACs, 54 Point Defence Cannons, 300 Archer Missile Pods, 100 Howler Missile Pods

Dimensions: 1500m long, 900m wide, 800m high

Class: Carrier

Role: Fighter Support, Area Denial

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Orion-class assault Carrier:

Crew: 800 Navy Personnel + 1100 Sentinels + 500 Legionnaires

Complement: 80 Pelicans, 200 Longsword Superiority Fighters, 80 ATLAS-class javelins, 100 Main Battle Tanks

Armament: 360 Point Defence Cannons, 154 small gimbaled MACs

Dimensions: 1800m long, 900m wide, 600m high

Class: Carrier

Role: Backbone of any assault fleet, normally combined with 4 Poseidon-class Carriers and numerous Frigate wolfpacks, able to produce fuel, spare parts, and combat vehicles

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Marathon-class heavy Cruiser:

Crew: 2000 Navy Personnel + 500 Sentinels

Complement: 24 Longsword Superiority Fighter, 8 Pelican Dropships, 20 Warthogs, 10 Scorpion MBTs

Armament: 2 Heavy MACs, 6 Pod Systems, 40 Archer Missile Pods, 20 Howler Missile Pods, 32 Point Defence Cannons, 30 gimbaled small MACs, 14 gimbaled armour piercing MACs

Dimensions: 1192m long, 293m wide, 500m high

Class: Cruiser

Role: heavy hitter, support and firepower replacement for carriers

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Phoenix-class support vessel:

Crew: 3500 Navy Personnel + 6000 Sentinels + 1000 Legionnaires

Complement: 250 Pelicans, 170 Warthogs, 100 Scorpion MBTs, 800 Drop pods

Armament: 3 medium gimbaled MACs, 14 small gimbaled MACs, 40 Point Defence Cannons, 24 Archer Missile Pods, 6 Howler Missile Pods, 22 gimbled armour piercing MACs, Hot-Rod deployment system

Dimensions: 2.5km long, 800m wide, 600m high

Class: Colony support Vessel

Role: base building, frontline vehicle production and repair, troop transport

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Epoch-class Heavy Carrier:

Crew: 1300 Naval Personnel + 800 Sentinels

Complement: 36 Pelicans, 24 Longsword Superiority Fighter, 4 Mammoths, 16 Warthogs

Armament: 2 gimbaled medium MACs, 2 gimbaled armour piercing MACs, 44 Point Defence Cannons, 70 Archer Missile Pods, 30 Howler Missile Pods

Dimensions: 2563m long, 600m wide, 953m high

Class: Carrier

Role: Support, Escort and Interdiction

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Infinity-class Supercarrier:

Crew: 9000 Navy Personnel + 5000 Legionnaires + 100 Archivists + 2500 Sentinels + 500 Corvus Agents

Complement: Javelin Assembly, 10 Strident/Anlace-class Frigates, 150 Pelicans, 2000 Longsword Superiority Fighter, 10000 Orbital Drop Pods, 30 M510 Mammoths, 560 Warthogs, deployable flash forges, internal assembly lines

Armament: 2 heavy MACs, 8 gimbled medium MACs, 32 gimbled small MACs, 18 armour piercing MACs, 830 Point Defence Cannons, SHIVA nuclear deployment system, Hot-Rod deployment system, 700 Archer Missile Pods, 500 Howler Missile Pods

Dimensions: 5694m long, 833m wide, 1041m high

Class: Carrier

Role: Exploration, Flagship of Legionnaire Expedition fleets in the years right before contact with Council races

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ATLAS-class Colony Ship:

Crew: 500.000 personnel + 1M Inhabitants

Complement: Fully functional City, 300 Strident-class Frigates, 50.000 Longsword Space superiority Fighters, multiple Manufacturies, Asteroid Harvesting Bays

Armament: 500.000 Point Defense Cannons, 15.000 Missile Silos

Dimensions: 100km wide, 100km long, 50km high

Class: Citadel

Role: Only 2 were ever built for the evakuation of the planet Rakhana. Both ATLAS-class Colony ships are currently heading their own fleet sized merchant fleets, and travel between the many colonies of humanity and their trade partners in the Sangheili Kingdoms.

* * *

**Faster than Light:**

The FTL-engine was developed after the Mars archives were successfully decoded in the year 2446. The first prototype was built by a group of engineers and theoretical physicists led by Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa, in the year 2451. From that point onward, the drive became one of the most important technological innovations, right next to the fusion reactor, Bio-Links and Ion-Propulsion. Using a newly discovered interdimensional space, aptly named Slipspace, this engine can rip a hole into space-time continuum and shorten the distance of lightyears into days.

* * *

**Shielding:**

First energy shield technology was obtained by humanity after the defeat of the Tevarin, and their following surrender to Admiral Mathias Shaw. These so called "Phalanx"-shields were only able to defend in one direction, but where extremely strong. Phalanx-shields are still used by Enforcer-class Javelins.

After the Holy Covenant started its total war on the U.P.S.C., Archivist and Corvus scientists managed to decrypt the blueprints of several covenant technologies, leading to a reverse-engineering effort of the covenant shield generator.

The shielding was at the same time resized to fit into smaller housings to protect the Titans and their Javelins in the field.

* * *

**U.P.S.C. Territory:**

Earth – The Birthplace of Humanity, Heart of Democracy and Economic powerhouse of the U.P.S.C.

Mars – The industrial Powerhouse of the U.P.S.C. The first planet in human history to be completely terraformed and in possession of the biggest shipyards in U.P.S.C. territory, closely followed by the Lunar Metal Works.

Reach – As the Military Hub of the U.N.S.C. it houses the main training facilities of the U.N.S.C., and contains the Corvus Department HQ.

Harvest – Also called "The Breadbasket of Humanity", Harvest alone contributes to around 60% of all the Food production of the U.P.S.C. That also means that Harvest is the most defended planet after Earth and Reach, with a standard fleet of 1 Infinity-class Super Carrier and the 5th Home fleet.

Kaleeth – The Tevarin Home planet, it consists mostly out of vast oceans with beautiful rock formations, dotted with smaller to medium sized islands, the biggest landmass is the size of Australia.

Arcturus-Station \- Arcturus Station, the heart of Humanity. It lies in the middle of Human space and is the main fall-back point of every fleet, it is constantly under the protection of 1 Infinity-class Super carrier and the 6th and 3rd Homefleet.

Anthem \- The first colonised World outside of our solar system, where humanity found fully intact shaper relics together with the star maps used to find Installation-000 and Shieldworld Delta.

Anthem is the staging ground for human supremacy in the Orion Arm, without Anthem Humanity wouldn't have been able to perfect their Javelin suits,

the "taming" of Anthem rang in the Era of Colonization.

Installation-000 \- A recovered installation of ginormous size, left by the Forerunners and found by the Humans. It is a giant piece of terraforming equipment, meant to terraform even the most hostile rocks in space and turn them into garden worlds. Installation-000 was used to terraform Reach into the green giant it is today.

Even though it is in actuality a terraforming tool, doesn't mean, that it is inhospitable: in the inner side of the ring lies a colonisable stretch of land under a protective layer of energy shielding meant to withstand even the strongest supernovas

Shieldworld Delta \- Found by the Legion and their Freelancer militia, it is an artificial hollow world, with a small sun in the middle. Delta was probably once a stronghold of the Forerunner civilisation meant to serve as their new home in case of a Katastrophy, but it now serves the Legionnaires as a mobile base of operations and is colonised mostly by Drell, who serve the Legion.

Sirius-Main-Hub \- Built in the Sirius system, it connects multiple Slipspacestreams. The Sirius-Main-Hub is the commercial hub of the U.P.S.C.


	4. Citadel Races

**Mass Effect: Dreams of Stone and Dust**

**Citadel Council Races**:

Asari: _"The Asari are an interesting species in and of itself. Ridding themselves of any male counterpart, they depend on other species to gain the needed DNA for their reproduction. Truly interesting is the fact that the reproduction of two Asari with each other is looked down upon because that could lead to the birth of an 'Ardat-Yakshi', a genetic throwback, where the 'meld' with another person would kill the partner. That would mean that they once had to rely on animals on their homeworld to reproduce! […] They can achieve a lifespan of several millennia and look like very enticing blue women from space[...] They are one of the three big races on the Citadel […] It is fascinating that the other races didn't realise that they are slowly absorbed by the Asari culture." _

~ exert from the book "Council and More: How to shake an Elkors hand"

While the Turians are the militaristic aspect and the Salarians are the scientific/surveillance aspect of the Citadel Council, the Asari are the cultural and economic heart of their union. Neither of the other races could achieve much without the investments of Asari Matrons, the Salarians are even dependent on the Asari to find fitting mates.

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Turians: _"The Turians are in principle militaristic avian humanoids with a metal exoskeleton. They seem to depend on strict discipline and order, which already lead to one wide spanning rebellion of their outer colonies. Sadly, they also use the same strict order and discipline in their military formation, making it surprisingly easy to disrupt them with hit-and-run guerrilla warfare, a good example would be the invasion and following battle of Shanxi. […] They never got over the fact that they needed a genetically engineered super sickness to defeat the Krogans. […] I still don't know WHY the Asari and Salarians ever gave the Turians so much power over the security of Citadel space." _

~ an exert of the book "Council and More: How the shake an Elkors hand"

The Turians are in principle the military police of the Citadel Council. Even though they don't have the economic means for it, they still support the biggest fleets in council space. Even if you count all other citadel species together fleet wise, the Turians would still come out on top.

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Salarians: _"The Salarians are truly remarkable! Even though they only life up to 50 years, they are still one of the most advanced species on the Citadel council, only slightly overtaken by the Asari, who managed to somehow always trump Salarian inventions. […] Because of their early time of death, it seems that the Salarians perceive time differently from other species, noticeable of you ever talk to one. They can talk up to 600 words the minute, which beats the human world record by around 100! It is also suspected that Salarians can perceive more colours than a regular human, noticeable when a Salarian sometimes looks at a white wall and says what an impressive colour spread this is. […] _

_The Salarians where the second species to find the Citadel and made there the first contact with the Asari Republic. At the time the Salarians where in a bad spot, because they had problems to find fitting pairs for their male population. A gene defect ensured that 300 males came to 1 female. Which meant that they had around 80% of the male population as desperate bachelors. Which in fact meant that the reason for the emergence of the Citadel Council was in fact an act of desperation on both parts. The Salarians needed females for their desperate males and the Asari needed a fresh source of DNA to ensure their own survival. […] _

_They are sadly the creators of an extremely virulent plague called the 'Genophage'. A type of virulent infection, which causes the infected to be born disfigured and causes immediate death on birth. This deed is debated highly in the U.P.S.C.s scientific circle and many scientists demand the U.N.S.C. to allow them to research a cure out of humanitarian reasons. If not that, then to at least turn it into an infertility causing disease, changing the pathogen in a way to inhibit insemination instead of the death AFTER birth. […] Rather they don't begin growth at all then to be born and bring the parents a false hope." _

~ an exert from the book "Council and More: How to shake an Elkors hand"

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Volus: _"The Volus are short, chubby, methane-based humanoids, imagine Unggoy but craftier and not as physically strong. Many scientists tried to find a correlation between shortness and methane-based life after meeting the Volus for the first time. […] They [the Volus] are the third race to come upon the Citadel. Sadly, they only had two things going for them, and that was an extremely stable economy and that they needed methane enriched planets for colonization. That meant that the Asari and Salarians used them to create the currently still used Credit. […] They are a race of famous merchants and bankers. […] _

_Even though they are the third longest race on the Citadel they never received a seat on the Council, the reason was that they 'didn't do enough for the galactic community', which is utter humbug. I mean, is a stable economy and the single-handed upholding of the galactic stock market not enough? No, it seems not. After approximately 1000 years, they were forced to become a client race of the Turians for services done [Krogan Rebellion] […]"_

~exert from the book "Council and More: How to shake an Elcors hand"

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Elcor: _"The Elcor are definitely one of my favourite species on the Citadel Council, native to the high-gravity world of Dekuuna even a small fall could be lethal! This has coloured their psychology, making them deliberate and calm. […] The Elcor use an extremely developed olfactory sense and subvocalized infrasound to convey meaning, leading us [the rest of the galaxy] to assume that they talk in monotone speech patterns. […] The Elcor of old tended to travel in groups similar that of Killer whales or elephant herds, led by an elder patriarch or matriarch. This means that they to this day still follow the leadership of more experienced Elcor or in some cases Asari. […] They were literally uplifted by the Asari, and I mean it, when I say literally. They once stumbled upon an Asari fleet and in just one Elcor lifetime they had a stable trade route to the other citadel races. […]"_

~exert from the book "Citadel and More: How to shake an Elcors hand"

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Batarians: _"The Batarians. Let me try to summarize the batarian race. They are slavers, cut-throats, raiders, pirates and if you forgot the first point SLAVERS. I am sure that there are nice Batarians. I am sure there a friendly Batarians. Sadly, they are most likely already slaves and work in the batarian moon mines. The batarian world is a world in black and white, if you are weak then you become a slave, and weakness and kindness are one and the same for most Batarians sadly. […] The typical Batarian has 4 eyes and three hearts, most of them surely black. They possess naturally strong musculature and bones, but they are extremely susceptible to diseases, leading to 10.000s of dead batarian slaves in the slums. […]_

_The Batarian Hegemony is divided into several casts: at the top is the Imperial Clan, then come the Warlords, then the Aristocrats, then the Merchants and then the Commoners. Of course, that doesn't include the slaves, because slaves are not sentient in the batarian view. Even the Common batarian people are in fact a slavelike sub-culture. They are under the thumb of their feudal overlords and can't even resettle without their permission. That means that no normal batarian citizen ever left the Batarian Hegemony. […]_

_It is truly fascinating that only the Turians try to go against the Batarian Hegemony for their open slavery and the regularly occurring raids on border settlements. Even the fact that the Batarian Hegemony openly supports slavers and pirates doesn't concern most of the council, because that is their 'cultural heritage'. I wonder that if the U.P.S.C. says that it is our 'cultural heritage' to kill 50% of all babies if they would accept it the same way as they do the batarian slavers. […]"_

~exert from the book "Citadel and More: How to shake an Elcors hand"


	5. Eventual Allies

**Mass Effect: Dreams of Stone and Dust**

**Eventual Allied Races:**

Quarians: _"The quarians are extremely similar us humans, with the main difference being that they are dextro-amino based. Even though they only have 3 fingers and toes together with inverted legs, the Quarians are the only humanoids in the Galaxy to have hair the same way we humans do. They even have the same facial features as us humans! […] It is a shame, what happened to the quarian people. They are the most talented engineers and where the top scientists with virtual Intelligence and where close to building the first actual Artificial Intelligence, but sadly exactly this was their downfall. […] _

_After the Citadel Council forbid the development of A.I.s many quarian scientists opposed the decision, but the Council leaned on the quarian head of state and threatened heavy sanctions on the Quarian Commune. Even though they had to stop their development of high class A.I. and V.I. many quarian scientists started the development of a robotic lifeform called 'the Geth', which translated would mean 'Servant of the People'. They were a hivemind like structure, which was supposed to be able to learn many tasks through a network with other Geth units. […] _

_This led to the first self-realizing A.I., which in turn lead to the Quarian Morning-War. Over 30 billion quarians lost their life on Rannoch and on the quarian colonies, either defending the newly awakened Geth or trying to shut them down. […] After they Quarian Commune lost the war against the Geth they asked for help from the Citadel Council, but where rebuffed by the Asari Councillor. […]_

_They now live mostly on a Migrant fleet, even though we still don't know why they didn't start construction on bigger space stations. […] We [the U.P.S.C.] are currently in negotiations with the Quarian Migrant Fleet for membership and the colonization of dextro-amino worlds in U.N.S.C. controlled space. Many Archivist red cross teams are already onboard of the Quarian lifeships, trying to supply them with needed medical supplies and immunobiotics. […]"_

~exert from the book "Out into the Travers: An intricate guide to Krogan customs and the Quarian lifestyle"

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Krogan: _"The Krogan race is truly inspiring. These giant reptilian humanoids are really fascinating. Even though they are close to total annihilation, they still go out into the world to die tragically in Gangwar's and petty border disputes. Like the quarians, the Krogan were once a part of the Citadel, even though they never received a seat on the Council. […]_

_Even though the current krogan lifespan is no longer then 50 years that doesn't mean that they die to natural causes. Yes, even the loss of a heart would not stop a krogan, for they have excessive redundant organs and other body systems [two hearts, four lungs, etc.]. A normal krogan has the natural lifespan of around 2000 years. […]_

_A Krogan typically stands over 2m. They are extremely heavy creatures, with dense musculature and bones. A healthy Krogan is known to weigh at least 150kg, while above-average specimen weighs nearly 200kg. Their heavy mass and dense musculature mean that Krogans can't swim, they would not have enough drift to stay afloat. This does not mean that Krogans fear water for Krogans don't fear anything, the opposite is the case, a normal Krogan can survive up to two hours under water. […]_

_Another interesting fact is that, even though modern krogan society is extremely caveman-esque, the females are the ones at the top of the hierarchy. Yes, a krogan male normally follows the orders of the clan head, but the clan head must bow down to the will of the clan's females. Children are also held in very high regards, due to the high mortality rate. […]_

_The reason for the high death rate of Krogan males in the galaxy lies in the fact, that many Krogan gave up on life. Their race is doomed, for the atrocities of the Krogan Rebellion. The rebellion was started out of greed and aggression, but the Krogans did not know better. They were not even prepared to become a spaceflight civilisation! The Salarians uplifted them to serve as frontline cannon fodder and to win the Rachni War for them. At the end the Krogans were left to their own devices. With the incredibly fast reproductive rate of up to 2000 eggs per female, that lead to extreme overpopulation of the krogan colonies, leading to the assault and colonization of Asari worlds. That escalated in turn into the Krogan Rebellion, led by Urdnot Jarreq. […]_

_At the end of the Krogan Rebellion it was not an epic victory in space, or a mighty invasion force that broke the Krogan spirit. It was the Genophage, an extremely aggressive genetic virus, that impedes the correct growth of the foetus, leading to death on birth. This disease is a hotly contended topic in U.P.S.C. scientific circuits and many scientists demanded the U.N.S.C. High-Command to give them the go-ahead to create a cure. […]"_

~exert from the book "Out into the Traverse: An intricate guide to Krogan customs and the Quarian lifestyle"

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Notes: Hello everyone, Jadeflame here and I just wanted to post some more news!

Yes, a timeline is in works and one of three parts is already finished with the second nearly completed too. I am currently working on the storyboard for the First Contact War and hope you can wait some more on it^^.

I swear that it won't take too long. There are also still some things that will get added to the codex, like the Terminus races(Hanar and servant-Drell,) and a bestiary (Varren, Vorcha, and some other creatures that come from Anthem like the Ursix). Please PM me if you think that I forgot some important things for the first few chapters!


	6. Terminus Races

**Mass Effect: Dreams of Stone and Dust**

**Terminus Races:**

Vorcha:

"_The Vorcha are truly fascinating! Even though they have the intelligence of a terran dolphin, these bipedal lizards are extremely treacherous. […] A Vorcha is practically a giant lizard cockroach, they can survive nearly everything except instantaneous incineration, extreme instances of electricity or decapitation. They have three nervous systems and have naturally occurring clusters of stem cells in strategic places of their body, enabling them to regrow lost extremities in a matter of months. Together with the overabundant amount of reserve organs and their extreme reproductive drive, makes this the Vorcha one of the most dangerous pests in the galaxy. […] The only reassuring thing about the Vorcha is that they are at least short-lived, the galaxy does not need another Krogan Rebellion. […]_

_The reason for the Vorchas natural aggression lies in their history as a race. Originating from the hostile world of Heshtok, a barren, inhospitable and resource stripped Class 12 planet in the heart of the Terminus Systems, forced the Vorcha to be able to adapt to any circumstance. A burned Vorcha would develop thicker skin for example. […] Vorcha culture is built around combat. In fact, the Vorcha use combat as heir default form of communication! As a clan-oriented species, the Vorcha are naturally hostile to anything outside of their clan. […] Using this natural aggressiveness, the numerous warlords of the Terminus System and Aria use the Vorcha as cheap cannon-fodder." _

~exert from the Book "Out into the Traverse: Don't mess with Aria and don't say anything about any kind of Enkindler!"

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Hanar:

"_The Hanar are one of the most perplexing species in the Terminus area. Resembling giant jellyfish, they are one of the most scientifically advanced species in our galaxy. This lies in the fact, that the Hanar homeworld is literally littered with Prothean relics, leading the Hanar to revere the Prothean as their gods. […] Several Archivist scientists suspect that the Hanar were once in their primitive beginning some kind of pet or food item of the Protheans. […]_

_Even though they only control 25 worlds, doesn't mean that they are weak. A good example would be the Hanar-Council War, where the late Citadel Council members declared war on the Hanar after they stole many Prothean relics and artefacts. The only response was that,_

'_The filthy Council races disgrace their holy relics with their unholy touch and that the Hanar Confederacy demands any and all Prothean relics to be handed back into their hands, so they could cleanse them and learn from the god's knowledge!'_

_Leading to the first conflict between these two factions. Interestingly enough it was the Hanar Confederacy, that won against the mighty Council fleet. Even though they only had two fleets of 80 ships each, they won against the numerical superiority of the 4 Council fleet, each with around 150 ships. […]_

_It is publicly known that the Hanar made contact at one point with the Drell and saved around 500.000 Drell of a specific minority from their Homeworld, leaving the rest of their kind behind to die. It is not known for what reason the Hanar only saved the green skinned Drell, but it was thought that the rest of the Drell civilisation died on their world, at least until the first contact on Shanxi, where Turian Commandos fought against Legionnaire Drell forces. […]_

_The Hanar are widely known to be fanatic followers of their Enkindler cult and try to force other people into accepting the Enkindler as their lords and saviours. […]_

~exert from the Book: "Out into the Traverse: Don't mess with Aria and don't say anything about any kind of Enkindler!"

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Drell:

"_The Terminal Drell are the, to us, most known race of all other galactic species outside of the Orion arm. We saved after all the rest of their entire civilisation after the Terminal Drell left them to die on their homeworld. The wording 'Terminal Drell' is surprisingly fitting, because around 70% of the on Hanar worlds dwelling Drell suffer under the Kepral-Syndrome, a scarring of their lungs because of the high humidity on the Hanar water worlds. The Kepral-Syndrome is always deadly, leading to a slow death through asphyxiation. […]_

_The Terminal Drell are the same as 'our' Drell, possessing an eidetic memory and own a slightly less toxic version of the normal Drell poison. […]"_

~exert from the book: "Out into the Traverse: Don't mess with Aria and don't say anything about any kind of Enkindler!"

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Yahg:

"_The Yahg are an extremely mysterious species. There are only a few survivors of the Council Diplomacy envoy that survived the meeting between the Yahg government and the Council representatives. Most were eaten by the Yahg and the rest hunted for 5 days and nights, until they could get picked up by the in-orbit stationed diplomacy vessel. The bit of information that is known is that they are giant, four armed, bestial humanoids with four pairs of eyes. The homeplanet was isolated and the in-system Mass Relay was set under heavy patrolling by Turian Pacification fleets. There were numerous attempts by the Yahg to leave their planets gravitational pull, but any major ships that managed to do that were instantly shot upon by the Turians. […]_

_There are some known Yahg in the Terminus, each has mighty bounties on their heads because of the committed slaughter and cannibalization of their victims. It is widely known that Yahg love the sound of their screaming prey. […]"_

~exert from the book: "Out into the Traverse: Don't mess with Aria and don't say anything about any kind of Enkindler!"

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Geth:

"_The Geth are a race of synthetic humanoids, created by the Quarians to support their lacking agricultural system. After they regained sentience, the leading Quarians were forced by the Council to try and destroy all Geth, while a huge number of civilians tried to protect their new sons and daughters. The destruction of the Geth, would have funnily enough destroyed the Quarian people, even without any resistance from the Geth, all their [the Quarian] Agriculture depended heavily on the Geth and without them they would have all died of starvation. […]_

_The following civil war lead to the death of 30 billion Quarian lives and the Quarian exodus and following formation of the Quarian Migrant Fleet. Following that the Geth came to the consensus to protect the Quarian space until their masters came to the resolution to stop unnecessary death on both sides and allow the geth to keep living in their space. Every ship that tried to enter with activated weapons systems following this decision, were disabled and then disassembled, while the crew was always found in escape capsules. […]"_

~exert from the book: "Out into the Traverse: Don't mess with Aria and don't say anything about any kind of Enkindler!"

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Scars:

"_The Scar are the first extra-terrestrial, semi-intelligent species encountered by Humanity in the beginning of the Second Age. They are wormlike creatures, who combine into masses of tens of thousands of their kind to take the form of the most dominant species on the planet, while showing the intelligence to at least use already existing technology, like weapons and shield-technology. […]_

_They are divided into a cast-system, where a hivemind sits at the top, followed by overseers, then warriors and then the servant caste. […]_

_In the beginning any contact between Humanity and the Scars ended in bloodshed, but after the scientist Dr. Enrico DeLegrace was caught and forced to live with them he decoded the communication between the Scars themselves. It seems that instead of verbal or visual communication, the Scar use some kind of vibrating frequency that serves as their main channel of communication. […]_

_Interesting is the fact that the Scar and the Lekgolo [The most dangerous ground unit of the Covenant in the Human-Covenant War] are closely related! […] After sifting through a plenitude of documents pertaining the first contact of the Covenant with the Lekolo colonies on the planet Te, Archivist scientists realized that both races were once one and the same kind, but that a multitude of colonies were catapulted into space by a meteorite that had hit their homeplanet. Using this meteor, they used it as a facsimile spacecraft and travelled through space, while consuming the meteor and other debris in space for substance. […]_

_They landed after 1684 years on the planet Anthem, where they started to actively reproduce and began construction of additional colonies. The ecology stabilized in a loose balance through the other, by the Anthem created, dangerous and volatile species like the Ursix and Brutes. […]_

_The first Scars on other planets then Anthem, where found around 68 years after immigration routs between Anthem and the Sol System worlds were opened. It seems like if even two Scar worms manage to survive the transportation, that these two specimens are able to reproduce into a new colony. […]"_

~exert from the Book: "Scars and Ursix: How to survive an Ash-Titan"

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	7. The First Age (Timeline)

**Mass Effect: Dreams of Stone and Dust**

**The Beginning of a New Age**

2019: England decides to stay in the European Union, but has to use a unified European currency and must convert to the metric system.

2025: The first Congress of Africa takes place inviting up to 50 independent countries, with the goal of righting wrong borders and to bring peace to the war-torn states. While it ends in a "disaster", 15 state heads of warmongering countries die in assassinations, it sets the precedence of an eventually united and peaceful African continent. The next congress is set for the year 2030.

2027: Rumours of drained oil fields in Saudi-Arabia and the Near East crop up. Western European and Scandinavian countries invest heavily into renewable energy and start to be less reliable on oil and gas imports from outside the European Union.

2030: The 2nd Congress of Africa takes place. All 50 countries are in appearance, 19 countries are annexed by their bigger neighbours and all borders are redrawn, leading to nearly zero border conflicts in the following years.

2035: The African Union is founded.

2040: Secret talks instigated by Poland and France between them, Germany, England, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Denmark begin about the founding of a new country, Greater Europe. The official state language would be English, while the old countries would keep the right to use their own language in official matters while in their respective states, as their cultural heritage. Old borders would be kept as state borders and the new official capital would be in Brussels.

2048: The last major oilfield in Arabia dries up. Oil prices skyrocket. Unrest spreads across the globe and mass riots start in North America, China and Russia. Europe invests heavily into the research of fusion reactors and efficient solar energy converters.

2050: A border conflict between China and Russia breaks out in Vladivostok, over the control of the Alaskan oil and gas fields. The rest of the world watches with bated breath.

2051: "The Massacre of Vladivostok" commences. Over 500.000 Civilians and military personnel die due to a biological attack from the Chinese government. The United Nations begin intervention procedures but get rebuffed by the Chinese. The last words spoken by Antonio Tijani concerning this matter were "If ONE nuclear weapon is fired, then that means that this war is waged by terrorists and we will engage them with all our combined might. He will become the enemy of the United Nations."

2054: The North-Korean leader King Jong-un is assassinated by an impoverished farmer on his way to Hamhung. South-Korea uses the diversion and invades North-Korea. After 10 months of an all-out war between North and South Korea, the south wins and re-unites both countries under one banner for the first time in 144 years.

2055: America invades southern China and the Philippines, while also starting an attack on Mexico. The United Nations failed and is officially disbanded.

2056: The African Union attacks South Africa; Canada and Australia send supplies and soldiers to support South Africa. With the world falling into chaos more and more countries start wars over border disputes and resources. Europe isolates itself from the world and begins construction of a space elevator with a combined space station.

2060: Out of the cocoon of isolation emerges the new country of Greater Europe. Redistributing most of its budget into renewing the dilapidated infrastructure in some parts of its new vast regions and scientific discovery, while focusing most of its military on its borders. The new space elevator is estimated to finish in 2100.

2065: Sarah Laurent and her team of engineers from PSL (Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University) build the first cost efficient Fusion Reactor in the world, claiming the "bounty" of 1.000.000€. This scientific breakthrough echoes around the world. Through the years more and more oil reserves around the world dried up and until now no one had achieved any breakthroughs in the field.

2066: Russia develops a new medical innovation, the "Biofoam", it can nearly instantaneously close any wound and enhances the regenerative ability of the body.

2067: After a whole year of losses against the Russian and American armies, China launches its nuclear weapons arsenal on Russia and America, while disabling most of their defences with strategic EMP-bombs. Russia and America both retaliate, wiping each other out.

2068: Emergency rescue operations are sent by Greater Europe and its allies (Canada, Brazil, the eastern European Block, North Africa and Australia) to the American continent to try and evacuate all surviving civilians. Canada and all countries of Southern America must evacuate to escape the nuclear fallout. Chinese refugees flee to India and Australia, while Russian citizens evacuate to Greater Europe. Special Forces are sent into Russian, American and Chinese core territory to retrieve as much research data and survivors as possible.

2070: The last refugees leave the American continent. 80% of the Special Taskforces sent into the radioactive zones die, while the rest barely survive thanks to the recovered Biofoam-technology. A german scientist invents Medigel from the Biofoam formula.

2071: Greater Europe begins intervention missions in the war-torn countries around the globe, while establishing a new world government. The goal is a complete world unification under one flag and with one centralized currency and language.

2078: The last war is won, and most countries yield Greater Europ's goal of world unification.

2085: The first case of radiation sickness is made public. Research into gene-therapies begins extensively. The Unified Terran Confederation is established. All old countries are converted into states with the example of the European Unification. Each state receives one seat in the new government with the power to vote on new laws and regulations.

The first goal of the new government is the colonization of our solar system, meaning the terraforming of Mars, the full colonization of Luna and the moons of Venus. Goals of recolonizing the old territories of North America, Russia and China, and South America get pushed into the background. The U.T.C. echelon begins to play with the idea to create super soldiers.

2090: Gene-therapy is now a requirement for enlistment into the army, and most children get treated in the first year of their life, placing Gene-Therapy at the same importance as vaccinations.

2104: The first space-elevator is completed after several setbacks. Construction of a moon base together with a state-of-the-art space station begins.

2105: Research into compliant mechanisms together with Ion-Engines and Nanotechnology receive heavier funding.

2106: Ion-engines have a breakthrough with enhanced funding and the first space ship based on an ion propulsion system begins construction.

2109: A scientist by the name of Michael Goldbaum is the first man on earth to grow fully nutritional meat in a government lab. Immediate production of synth meat begins to combat the increasing food requirements of immigrants and nuclear fallout survivors.

2112: Jump-Point Alpha finishes construction. Spanning a length of 900m and a body width of 300m, it is the largest space station in the world (Imagine a huge pillar with revolving rings around it). The last nuclear reactor on earth is shut down and is replaced with a fusion reactor. Talks about terraforming Mars begin.

2130: The first colony on the moon begins construction, with the goal of settling most of the Chinese and American refugees there.

2131: The first building finished construction on the Moon.

2141: The first spaceship with a functioning Ion-engine finishes construction and is named the: I.S.S "Albert Einstein". It can transport up to 500 people and can carry 500tons of additional cargo. It spans around 200m in length and it is shaped like a heavily armoured, elongated hexagon.

2143: The first lunar colony "Luna Installation-01" is established, housing around 50.000 people.

2145: With the government now planning to control more than just one planet and problems cropping up with establishing a streamlined governmental structure on the moon, it is decided to partition the moon into 55 states and to give each state a seat on the parliament.

It is decided to name the new overarching government "The United Nations Space Command", or short U.N.S.C., it's responsibility will be the protection of humanity and to safeguard its citizens from any danger, internal or external. The U.N.S.C. creates three different departments to manage different aspects of this goal.

The first are the "Sentinels", safeguarding humans from eventual terrorist attacks and supporting the police forces in the different states, while also mustering the main part of the U.N.S.C. army and marine corps.

The second is the "Legion", spearheading the colonization effort and the exploration of any new worlds, cataloguing and analysing new flora, fauna and bacteria. They supply the scout corps of the U.N.S.C., working in semi-independent teams of five. All team's live and work closely together.

The third department are the "Arcanists", representing the scientific discovery and progress of the U.N.S.C. They work closely together with the Legion to receive new samples and data, while relying on the Sentinels for security and tests.

2150: New Greenland, the first colony on Mars is established. The first Helium-3 extractors finished construction on the moon and bigger extraction constructs are being built in the atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn.

2151-2258: Major colonization and terraforming in the solar system. Establishment of space stations in the main Asteroid belt and construction of the now famous construction yards on Mars. 150 new states are founded on mars. Sentinel and Legion personnel begin the development of Corvettes, Frigates, Carriers and Cruisers. The U.N.S.C. begins construction of Homefleet-01 andDefencefleet-02.

2258-2356: A conflict between Earth and Mars breaks out. A war waged over nearly 100 years and at the cost of 10 billion human lives. At the end Earth triumphs but learns of its mistakes. Every fully colonized planet has the right to appoint its own governmental parliament ("United Terran Government", "United Martian Government", "United Government of Venus" etc.). Each planet then receives a specific number of seats, depending on the number of states each planet possesses, in the newly established parliament of the United Planetary System Alliance, also known as the U.P.S.C.

The state size is heavily regulated and must be at least as big as 10million square kilometres (Earth has 10 states: Europe, Asia Major, Asia Minor, West Asia, Middle East, North Afrika, South Afrika, India, Australia, and Southern South America). All governments must contribute 25% of their income to the U.P.S.C. to pay for the standing army and fleet. The U.N.S.C. is now the strong right hand of the new government, while the newly established Corvus corps represents the intelligence department.

2357-2389: A restructuring of the Fleets begins, starting with the reclassification of ship types, a standardization of ship and personnel weaponry and a change in military doctrine. The new space military doctrine specialises in mass torpedo and missile silos combined with excessive use of space superiority fighters. All ships, except for carriers, are equipped with a spinal mounted Gaus cannon.

The new ship types are arranged in size: Corvettes, Prowlers, Frigates, Support, Cruisers and Carriers.

The old Homefleet-01 and Defencefleet-02 are retrofitted with the new standardized weaponry and each of them is now configured around 3 Poseidon-class Carriers with 3 Wolfpacks of Stalwart-class Frigates and 10 Firegroups of Gladius-class Corvettes.

Development of specialised and cost-efficient space superiority fighters begins, ending with the design of the GA-TL01 Longsword-class Space Superiority Fighter.

2390-2445: An excavation team on the Martian South pole cause a chain reaction of cataclysmic dimensions. They found a piece of alien technology deep in the bedrock of the planet and accidentally activated an old alien terraforming facility. 30 billion people die in the following destruction of the planet's surface, while 2 billion inhabitants manage to escape. Giant pieces of machinery start to surface all over the planet, terraforming the once red planet into a perfectly inhabitable green garden world.

Sadly, most of the surfaced terraforming equipment was irreparably damaged in the terraforming process, leaving only gigantic metal husks behind.

2446: Recolonization of the new garden world begins. Archivist and Legionnaire excavation teams are sent to the southern pole of the planet to secure the main alien facility. They managed to decode the alien language in one year and found massive data caches, filled with star charts and information about a Bio-mechanical bridge called the Bio-Link and an FTL-drive called Slipspace-Engine.

2451: The first Prototype of the Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace-Engine is completed. Immediate testing and later a refitting of the Fleets begins.

2451: A specialised Colony ship called the Phoenix-class Colony Support Vessel is built by Legionnaire engineers. It can build whole cities on its own, containing mineral processing plants and assembly lines to produce whole vehicles and buildings and then assemble them on a planet.

2489: The Defencefleet-02 is renamed into Colonyfleet-02 and leaves the Sol System, with 100 civilian colony ships and 2 Phoenix-class Colony Support Vessels carrying around 500.000 civilians. Their goal is the, by the Forerunner marked, system of "Anthem".

**This marks the end of the Age of Discovery and ushers in the Age of Expansion.**

**Hello everyone, Jadeflame here with the newest addition of the Codex! **

**This time it is the beginning of the three part "Age"-saga, detailing what lead humanity to become what it will be in the stories.**

**Like always, write me a review and tell me what you liked and didnt like, I am always open for suggestions!**

**I hope you have a wonderfull day, toodles!**


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